Stuart A Hatfield

Sea Basing: A Way to Project Land Combat Power Stuart A Hatfield

As described in the 2004 National Military Strategy, the US military must be capable of rapidly projecting military power to achieve full spectrum dominance over any situation or against any adversary in any theater. The US military projects land power through a combination of forward based forces, deployed forces from the continental United States (CONUS), and prepositioned equipment. Forward deployed forces are relevant and ready only if they are in the right location to rapidly respond to a crisis. CONUS based forces are difficult and slow to deploy. While some may rapidly deploy by air, nearly 80% of their equipment and supplies required to sustain the deployment still travels by sea. Additionally, CONUS based forces require significant access to air and sea ports of debarkation in order to conduct reception, staging, onward movement, and integration (RSOI) to marry up personnel with their equipment before going into combat. Prepositioned equipment is relevant and ready only if it is in the right location to rapidly respond to a crisis. Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in March 2003 was a stunning success for the Department of Defense's prepositioning programs. For twelve years following Operation Desert Storm, the OIF demonstrated the importance of prepositioned equipment to rapidly project and build-up land combat power. However, OIF also demonstrated the dependence upon guaranteed access to port facilities and staging areas in order to complete the RSOI process. Seabased prepositioned forces and equipment provides the joint commander flexibility to maintain a forward presence, rapidly deploy forces from CONUS, and to project land power from sovereign platforms that are operationally independent of terrain. Current sea based capabilities include the US Navy's Sea Base, Sea Strike, and Sea Shield system of systems concept. Three USMC Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG) operate in the Pacific, the Mediterranean and Indian oceans, each with a Maritime Preposition Force (